Landsend league rnd 4

This match was back to a random draw today, so after a di breakfast ,which we were last to have, it was into the draw bucket, there were only 2 tickets left, I let Mike duckett decide which one and he handed me 34, same peg as last time on the speci lake, last time I really struggled as the fish didn't seem to be there as roach were a problem, even though I didn't catch to much last time I wasnt going to do it any different today, so it was hard pellet against the island on top of the shelf, a pellet rig on the deck off the Bush on the end of the island and a meat rig for down the track.
Peg 34 looking down from the cafe.

For company on in form peg 33 was Mark "I always draw bad" poppleton who was telling me his peg was never any good unless its really cold, yes right we would see.
Looking down on Mark .

I started badly even plumming up as I caught my rig round a branch on the island and the elastic snapped at the connector, I've had that plummet for ages, it was like losing a family pet.
It was a hard peg section with Alan oram on peg 25, Adrian Clark on 31, Andy hembrow on 32 Mark on 33 and me on 34, all good capable anglers so it was going to be tough to get the section money. The whistle went and I decided to go straight across against the island on banded 6mm over loose Fed 4,s, as the wind was meant to pick up I thought some early fish may be handy it the wind did increase making far bank fishing difficult.
It seemed to be the right decision as I was soon landing a carp after the loss of a fouler before that, but Mark and Andy both caught straight away aswell, it turned into a fairly straightforward match for the biggest part, and with 90 mins to go I was probably winning the section as I had 16 carp , Andy had stopped catching , Adrians peg after a very slow start was beginning to come to life, Mark was doing ok until he snagged the end bank and went round to free his rig, perhaps it was his last hook.

I think it may have done him a favour as he only had one more fish from the end bank, but he did start catching well out by the aerater about 18 inches deep, not really a normal occurrence in February, or perhaps we been doing wrong all these years, also Adrian was catching well now on the opposite side of the island from me , I never had another carp in those last 90 mins , and apart from a couple of liners no bites either, I think the carp moved around the island away from me, so I went from looking good to win the section to be more likely 3 rd as both mark and Adrian overtook me , the meat line was no good , I did get one carp on it but that was the only bite, I also hooked another branch on the island trying to get really tight against the island, but the wind did me proper and I lost another lot of elastic and a rig on one of those annoying hard to see twigs sticking out from the island, being next to mark today was a bit of an eye opener as he is the king of monsters, he even makes Chris Fox look like an apprentice, moans about the wind , the Sun making it hard to see, how hard the fish fight, you name it and he had a moan, so Mr Fox I think you will need to up your game.
1st on the day was Mark with 133.5
2nd Adrian on 31 with 128lb
3rd Nick merry on 16 with 116.15
4th me 107.14
5th Andy hembrow on 32 with 88.1
6th Paul elmes on 58 with 85.13
Silver's
Bob gullick on 42 with 21.8 of mainly handsize skimmers, (Bob's favourite fish)